[Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

[Shelley Haven]

Hi, Michael!

MacSpeech discontinued their iListen product in February.  It's been 
replaced with Dictate, a new product which is based on the Dragon 
speech recognition engine (MacSpeech licensed it from Nuance). 
Current iListen owners can "crossgrade" to Dictate at a reduced price 
depending on when they purchased iListen -- see articles below for 
details.  (They're actually different articles though they look the 
same at first glance.)  Take note, Dictate only runs on Intel Macs.

http://www.macspeech.com/article_info.php?articles_id=288&osCsid=a9d639ddf7dfdc0b358589df81897dbd
http://www.macspeech.com/article_info.php?articles_id=289&osCsid=a9d639ddf7dfdc0b358589df81897dbd

I spoke to the MacSpeech folks a few weeks ago about availability. 
They said they've been so inundated with requests that they decided 
to fulfill crossgrade and pre-orders first, then ship to first-time 
purchasers.  MacMall appears to be the only place currently carrying 
the product for orders.

Based on the initial reviews I've read and comments by a colleague 
who tried it at Macworld, the accuracy seems to be on par with Dragon 
but the user interface is different and there appear to be some 
operational bugs with editing and moving the cursor reminiscent of 
iListen's problems in this area.  Here are two brief video demos of 
Dictate in action -- well worth watching! -- and a third illustrating 
an editing bug:
http://cerebreality.com/?p=121
http://cerebreality.com/?p=124
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1yKEKRU3hE

- Shelley Haven



>"MacSpeech Dictate"? Does anyone know if this is hype, an upgrade from

>the "MacSpeech" application in the 9-26-07 e-mail noted below, or a new

>product.

>

>From: http://www.macspeech.com/article_info.php?articles_id=288

>"MacSpeech Dictate Unveiled": It is heralded as follows:

>

>"Revolutionary New Speech Recognition Solution for the Mac with

>Unprecedented Accuracy Makes Using a Mac With Your Voice Easier Than

>Ever

>SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., January 15, 2008 - Macworld Conference and Expo

>2008, Booth #607 - MacSpeech, Inc. today debuted MacSpeech Dictate(tm),

>a revolutionary new speech recognition solution for the Mac.... The

>underlying speech recognition and dictation technology is powered by

>dictation technology from Nuance Communications, Inc [the makers of

>Dragon NaturallySpeaking]."

>

>Thank you, 

>

>Michael Nusen

>Coordinator, OASIS/CAC

>(Office of Accommodative Services and Instructional Support/Computer

>Access Center)

>Pikes Peak Community College

>michael.nusen at ppcc.edu

>719-502-3022

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

>Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich

>Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 4:59 PM

>To: ea at emptech.info; 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>Subject: Re: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

>

>I just researched this information for a friend, and here is what I

>discovered. Which voice recognition software to use for the Mac appears

>to

>comes down to which version of the Mac OS you have.

>

>If you have OS X 10.3 or older (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) then you need

>ViaVoice.

>

>If you have OS X 10.4 or newer then you need iListen.

>

>If anyone knows something different, please let me know, but this seems

>to

>be the breakdown for the two...

>

>

>ViaVoice

>

>Mac OS X version 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3

>

>300 MHz G3 processor or higher*

>

>192 MB RAM (256 RAM recommended)

>

>600 MB of available hard drive space

>

>USB port

>

>Audio output jack or USB speakers

>

>CD-ROM drive or DVD drive

>

>Macintosh Computer Requirements

>

>G3 and G4 Macintosh computers which support the system requirements

>noted

>above*.

>

>Note to Mac OS X - Unix File System (UFS) users:

>

>IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X has been designed to take advantage of the

>Extended File System, also known as HFS+. Installation of IBM ViaVoice

>for

>Mac OS X in a UFS volume is not supported.

>

>

>iListen

>

>Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer (Mac OS 10.4 or later recommended).

>

>G4, G5 or Intel, (G5 or Intel recommended).

>

>512MB RAM.

>

>MacSpeech certified microphone required to receive technical support.

>

>

>******************************************************

>Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich

>High Tech Center Training Unit of the

>California Community Colleges

>De Anza College, Cupertino, CA

>www.htctu.net

>408-996-6043

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

>Behalf Of E.A. Draffan

>Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 3:48 PM

>To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'

>Subject: Re: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

>

>Have you heard of iListen  http://www.macspeech.com/  it may be worth a

>go -

>I have used it with one student and although it does not have all the

>features of Dragon Naturally Preferred and does not work in all

>applications

>it has improved in its recognition rates in recent times.

>

>

>Best wishes E.A.

>

>Mrs E.A. Draffan

>Learning Societies Lab

>ECS, University of Southampton

>Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 7246

>http://www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk

>http://www.emptech.info/

>-----Original Message-----

>From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

>Behalf Of Heidi Scher

>Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 9:01 PM

>To: Athen at athenpro.org

>Subject: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

>

>Hi all!

>

>OK - here it is - I'm not familiar with AT for the Mac.  I admit it.

>Hard to believe that I've not had students asking me until now.  But

>just

>today, I've had a student in my office to discuss options.  So, of

>course, I

>come to you, this oh-so-wise group, to gain knowledge and understanding.

>

>Student is running Mac OS X, has Boot Camp, but not very familiar with

>it.

>Although he does use Word...  Is willing to consider running something

>PC-side, but he much more comfortable with the Mac environment. He is

>desperate for voice recognition.

>

>What are your suggestions???

>

>Many thanks in advance to one and all!

>

>Heidi

>

>--

>

>Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC

>Interim Assistant Director

>Center for Educational Access

>University of Arkansas

>1 University of Arkansas, ARKU 104

>Fayetteville, AR 72701

>(479) 575-3104 (voice)

>(479) 575-7445 (fax)

>(479) 575-3646 (tdd)

>

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